Changes in Visual Studio 2012

Introduction

Nowadays, we see that software development process is
shifting from enterprise-driven process to consumer-focused approach, in which
applications are fully based on the taste of consumer market and the devices
they want to use. And the speed at which these devices and platform are
emerging, it is becoming more and more challenging for developers. Earlier
applications were used to run on a server or a desktop but today many more
devices like smartphones, tablets are becoming ubiquitous. So, in this case
developer must either create applications that work on multiple platforms or
make applications tailored to each platform with similar logic and the most
important thing is, there should be a connected experience that allow user to
seamlessly move among all these devices and platforms.

But as long as Microsoft is with developers, developers need
not worry. Agree ???

Visual Studio 2012

Launch of Visual Studio 2012 solved a lot of problems.
Now instead of the developer worrying about platform and devices, Visual Studio
will take care of it. Isn't it good? Visual Studio 2012 makes it easy to
develop apps for multiple platforms including Windows Smartphones, slates, Xbox
and of course traditional desktops. With the birth of Portable Libraries,
developer can write and compile the code once and then deploy the assembly
anywhere. Enhanced version of Team Foundation Server is another major addition. Continuing to all
these, one major change are App Store which help consumer to quickly search and
acquire the required application software. In App Store, Applications can be
monetized also either by charging or including advertisements in the
application. Visual Studio 2012 provides integrated tools to publish our
applications in this app store.

Major changes done in Visual Studio 2012

Interface of Visual Studio is redesigned in order to remove significant clutter
from the screen, while still providing a fast access to major features.

Visual
Studio 2012 is not only for developers, but many other people like
stakeholders, architects, project managers, designers, testers etc.

Visual Studio 2012 supports developers by enabling them to create solutions that are
highly scalable, supporting a range of models from durable full duplex
synchronous services to high-throughput asynchronous services.

Developing a
scalable solution is only half the challenge: You must also provide a suitable
environment to act as a host. With Visual Studio you can develop for a range of
infrastructure choices. Whether you choose to target a physical server, a
virtual server, or a private or public cloud, Visual Studio 2012 is your solution.
If you decide to use the Windows Azure™ public cloud offering, you can deploy
directly from Visual Studio to the cloud. Visual Studio also includes IIS Express (lightweight
IIS), which is suitable for testing the apps.

Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012

It enables
stakeholders to participate as equally as developers throughout the application
life cycle and help developers in faster delivery with more business value.

As
earlier version, Visual Studio TFS can be installed on local server but in
Visual Studio 2012, Team Foundation Server is available as an online SaaS version.

Sometimes, some teams may
be using a different development environment, such as Eclipse™. Visual Studio
Team Foundation Server 2012 provides adapters to connect to supported IDEs so
that developers can work in their preferred development environment.

Blend

It enables developer
to create more stunning applications using XAML.

Portability between Visual
Studio 2012 and Blend has been improved, and the design surface in Visual
Studio has been upgraded to more closely
match the experience in Blend.

Visual Studio Test Professional 2012

This helps testing
process to fully integrate into Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).

Using this test cases and testing can be
performed more quicker using the same tools as developers.

It allows Exploratory Testing, which enables testing without creating any formal test plans. It allows Test Manager to record, attach
screenshots, and create a test case

Testing on remote
devices without installing
Visual Studio 2012 or Test Manager on the device itself (only a small test
agent need to be installed on the device).

There are lots of interesting facts, which are associated with Visual Studio 2012, which I'll be posting as and when I'll get time.